Many congregational leaders have attended an event or read literature from a “teaching church,” a large congregation that shares with others what it has learned about effective ministry. How often, though, have we gone back to our own congregation and discovered that, what we learned from the teaching church is of limited value in our very different context? But what if there were a network of teaching churches, of all different sizes and situations, from which to draw guidance and help on how to more faithfully minister in many different settings? That, says Larry Goodpaster, is what the Alabama/West Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church has sought to become. Drawing on his experience as bishop of the Conference, Goodpaster describes what the churches in Alabama/West Florida have learned about reaching the unchurched, and how pastors and other congregational leaders can come together to build such teaching networks in their own area.From the Circuit Rider review: "Written to provoke dialogue, There’s Power in the Connection is a work that undoubtedly calls attention to what faces the UMC (as well as other mainline churches) in a new millennium. Goodpaster wants to stimulate the dialogue he believes is necessary to the church’s life and health and assist the church in understanding where it has been and what it might be (viii)." (Click here to read the entire review.)

There's Power in the Connection

Building a Network of Dynamic CongregationsBy Larry M. Bishop Goodpaster

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2008 The United Methodist Publishing House
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-687-64979-2

Chapter One

CURRENT REALITY: A CRISIS IN THE MAKING

The quotation has appeared in a number of places, and with various renderings, but here is the version that Thomas Friedman cites in his insightful and significant book The World Is Flat. Lou Gerstner became the chief executive officer of IBM in 1992. Speaking to the Harvard Business School in 2002, Gerstner said, "Transformation of an enterprise begins with a sense of crisis or urgency."

If The United Methodist Church is to be transformed in a way that recovers any semblance of the Wesleyan spirit out of which we were born, we must recognize, acknowledge, and confess that we are a denomination in crisis. Indeed, every historically mainline denomination finds itself in a similar position. For those of us in the Wesleyan tradition, we have lost any resemblance to the movement that affected England in the eighteenth century, that swept across the United States in the nineteenth century, and that spread like wildfire across Africa in the twentieth century. In America, we have managed to become what John Wesley feared: we have the form, we have the organizational structure, and we have the vocabulary, but we lack the power or the courage or the will to radically alter the downward spiral of membership and participation that will move us beyond surviving for a few more decades as a shell of our former self.

We have also managed to get tangled up in our own little worlds, to carve out our caves and corners into which we may retreat, and to choose sides in ways that divide us into parties that blame everyone else for the problems we have. The worst part of it is that there are too many United Methodists (both leaders and pew-sitters) who believe that we are doing just fine, that there is no crisis, and that we will somehow make it through. Reality: we are in a crisis. Without sounding like the comic character Chicken Little, who runs around shouting about a falling sky, I want to sound a note of urgency but quickly affirm that it is not a death sentence. Crisis gives us an opportunity either to throw in the towel and retreat or to lift our eyes and advance. We can hide under our collective steeples and await the end, or we can use the crisis as a breakthrough moment. What are some of the signs of the impending crisis that require our urgent, God-empowered attention and efforts?

1. MEMBERSHIP DECLINE

It has been well documented that The United Methodist Church is in a steep downward spiral in membership in the United States of America. In the last thirty-five years, the denomination has lost over 25 percent of its reported membership. When The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren merged in 1968, there were more than thirteen million members in forty-three thousand churches, and the decline that had already begun continued unabated. By 1970, membership stood at approximately 12.5 million. Thirty-five years later, at the end of 2005, The United Methodist Church counted less than eight million members in fewer than thirty-two thousand local churches. As a percentage of the total population of the United States, the church has declined to less than 3 percent. The church is in a free fall!

Even though The United Methodist Church has a church in almost every county of the country, the reality is that, for the most part, those individual franchises are declining and dysfunctional. They are operating out of a survival mode mentality. There are exceptions to such decline, and almost every state or annual conference can boast of at least a handful of United Methodist churches that are growing, healthy, and vital. Regrettably, there are not enough of those exceptions to offset the rapid decline of the whole. Even more regrettably, those churches that are growing are often treated by some denominational leaders with derision and skepticism. The prevailing wisdom goes that if some of our churches are growing there must be something wrong with them. Astounding! Either the leadership enjoys the death spiral, or it refuses to acknowledge that there is something wrong at the heart of the denomination. We may take some comfort in knowing that, at the present rate of decline, The United Methodist Church will close its last church in the United States in about ninety years. The "comfort" of that reality is that for most of us reading this paragraph in the first decade of the twenty-first century, that closing will not happen in our lifetime! We also take comfort in knowing that we are not alone in this decline. Those denominations traditionally called "mainline" or "mainstream" or "old line" flatlined years ago and are in as steep a decline as The United Methodist Church. Misery loves company! Since there are a few pockets of growth in every region, we also take some comfort in knowing that maybe a few buildings will be left standing and a remnant will be lingering in 2100! I am one of a growing number of bishops, denominational leaders, and others who are absolutely dissatisfied with this current reality and who are trying to lead in ways that will reverse the decline.

What does this downward spiral mean? Is it just a matter of losing members to death or other denominations? Is it a sign of bad record keeping, the zeal of the 1950s outrunning the accuracy of maintaining membership rolls? It seems that during my thirty-five years of ministry, most of our churches have been engaged in the practice known as "cleaning rolls" and "removing members." In fact, if we had spent as much time, energy, and compassion in reaching new generations as we have done in trying to find and contact long-departed members, we might actually have seen a reversal in the downward drift. Every person is important. Every member counts. This is why it is essential that we never lose sight of the fact that every "number" is a person loved by God, redeemed in Jesus, and gifted through the Spirit. No one should be lost or forgotten or neglected. But if the majority of our resources are directed toward maintaining the status quo rather than reaching the new, we will lose every time. This reality of membership decline is a crisis, and the urgency of the situation demands that action be taken. This reality of membership decline is also a sign that something is wrong deep inside the soul of the church; it is a symbol of the loss of enthusiasm and passion for those who are hurting, who are outside the Realm and Reign of God, and who have not heard, responded, or taken seriously the call of God in Christ Jesus. We have not fulfilled our calling as "ambassadors for Christ ... God is making his appeal through us" (2 Cor 5:20).

2. LOSS OF INFLUENCE, LOSS OF VOICE

The decline is not simply about losing members; it is also about the loss of ratios: percentage of population, percentage of demographic growth, percentage of voters, or percentage of new generations. Statisticians thrive on such formulas and calculations. The steady decline in membership also signals a loss of influence within the life of individuals and communities. No longer does the institutional church, regardless of denominational label, shape society or determine office hours, shopping hours, or leisure hours. No longer does the Christian faith perspective influence the ethics, values, or behavior of the marketplace, the...